Steve Buscemi

Diehard New Yorker Steve Buscemi was an independent film icon, both as a perennial favorite of respected filmmakers like the Coen Brothers, and as a writer and director in his own right. Throughout th...
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"I have not seen the TV Show Fargo. But I hear wonderful things about it. I do hope to watch it... someday! Someday I hope to watch a lot of shows... that I don't seem to see." Steve Buscemi has yet to see the hit TV series based on his 1996 Coen Brothers movie.

Steve Buscemi had to trade in the custom-made boots he was fitted for during his run as mob boss Nucky Thompson in Boardwalk Empire, because it was agony to wear them. The actor thought he was getting a real deal when show bosses decided his character should wear expensive footwear made exclusively for him and he expected the boots to fit perfectly.
But he tells WENN, "They (shoemakers) trace your foot on a piece of paper. These things hurt more than anything else. I could only wear them for one season, and then I said, 'Please, I'm tired!' I don't know what happened; it just didn't work for me."

Steve Buscemi and Machete star Danny Trejo have revisited the 1970s for a new Super Bowl Snickers candy ad. The two intense actors have been superimposed into a wholesome Brady Bunch episode - as TV sisters Marsha and Jan.

Musicians Blake Shelton and Vanilla Ice have been tapped to join the star-studded cast of Adam Sandler's new Netflix movie.
The funnyman signed on to star in four original movies shown exclusively on the Internet streaming service, and the first film, Ridiculous 6, puts a comedic spin on ensemble westerns such as The Magnificent Seven.
Sandler, who also co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Tim Herlihy, will play a man who grew up as an orphan on a Native American reservation. Country star Shelton will make his film debut as legendary sheriff Wyatt Earp, while rapper-turned reality TV star Vanilla Ice has been cast as noted American author Mark Twain, according to TheWrap.com.
Nick Nolte, Luke Wilson, and Taylor Lautner are also set to star in the film, while Sandler movie regulars such as Rob Schneider, Steve Buscemi, Dan Aykroyd and Jon Lovitz will also make appearances.

Ethan Hawke, Steve Buscemi and Chloe Grace Moretz were among stars who headed to the Museum of the Moving Image to honour Julianne Moore's career on Tuesday night (20Jan15). The five-time Oscar nominee was feted by organisers at the New York City museum's annual 'Salute' gala for her contribution to film, theatre and television.
The actors, plus Ellen Barkin, Billy Crudup and Sarah Paulson, took to the stage to pay tribute to Moore, while her The Kids Are All Right co-star Mark Ruffalo and Still Alice director Richard Glatzer sent in video messages.
During her acceptance speech, Moore said, "This is not something I ever expected to happen to me, certainly not while I was alive to see it. I received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year and I made a lot of jokes to my family and anyone else who would listen that now I don't need a tombstone, and now I feel like I don't need a memorial service either - thank you, you've saved my family a lot of money!"
She concluded her talk by paying tribute to her husband Bart and their children Liv and Caleb, adding, "I've been so privileged to have this career and be in so many moving, exciting, interesting narratives,... but it's my own story, my own family story with Bart and Cal and Liv that have given my life so much meaning."
Moore is up for a 2015 Best Actress Oscar for her role in Still Alice.

Actor Steve Buscemi mocked New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio over his policies during a speech at an awards show in the Big Apple on Monday (10Nov14). The Boardwalk Empire star received a prize at the Made in New York Awards for his contribution to the city's arts industry, and he was handed the trophy by De Blasio.
Buscemi took the opportunity to poke fun at the mayor and lambast his tough policies on motorists, joking that he had been due to film an appearance in a video round-up of the nominees, but missed his slot due to the low speed limits.
Buscemi said, "I was going there (to film) and I was driving 25 miles per hour and I was late," before adding "I was safe. And that's a good thing."
Other honourees at the event included Neil Patrick Harris, comedian Louis C.K., actress Rosie Perez, and Sex and the City producer Jane Raab.

Steve Buscemi and Neil Patrick Harris are to be honoured for their contribution to the arts in New York City with the Made in NY Award. The actors, along with comedian Louis C.K., actress Rosie Perez, and Sex and the City producer Jane Raab, are among the individuals who will be feted for their significant contributions to the city.
Meanwhile, documentarian Albert Maysles, whose credits include The Rolling Stones' tour chronicles in 1970's Gimme Shelter and 1976's haunting Grey Gardens, will be handed the Mayor's Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The honourees will be feted at a ceremony in Brooklyn on 10 November (14).

Actors Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci have turned to fans to help them fund a new documentary project. The longtime friends are serving as executive producers on the project, which documents the controversial Love Canal neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, New York.
In the 1970s, officials discovered that the local elementary school had been built on top of 22,000 tons of toxic chemicals, resulting in a series of deaths. The area was declared habitable in the early 1990s and the film follows the stories of residents who lived there both in the past and present.
Buscemi and Tucci, along with Wren Arthur's Olive Productions and Reno Productions, launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.com, hoping to raise at least $50,000 (£31,250) to complete editing and other post-production work.
They have raised $21,000 (£13,125) so far, and the campaign ends on 11 November (14).
A statement on the website urges supporters to encourage others to contribute to the fund, in the hope of raising awareness about the long-lasting effects on the area and neighbourhoods around the world.
It reads: "Whether your friends and family can contribute or not, it's good for people to be aware of what is happening to us all. The people in places like Love Canal are at particular risk but we are all being exposed to toxic chemicals on a daily basis. It's time to take them out of products and waste streams and to properly manage the hazards we have already created."

Hollywood actors Clive Owen, Samuel L. Jackson, Damian Lewis and Sean Bean were among the famous faces who became stockbrokers for the day on Thursday (11Sep14) for a Transatlantic 9/11 charity event. A whole host of actors, musicians, royals, sports stars, and celebrities joined in Cantor Fitzgerald's and BGC Partners' annual Charity Day, which commemorates the victims of America's 2001 terrorist attacks by raising money for good causes.
The event takes place in London and New York City, and actors including Owen, Bean and Lewis were among those who manned the phones on the U.K. leg along with Downton Abbey star Jim Carter and funnyman Stephen Fry.
Others taking part included British royal Princess Beatrice, tennis legend Boris Becker, girl group All Saints, and model David Gandy, while actor Steve Buscemi and Pamela Anderson turned out for the Big Apple event.
Jackson tweeted about the event, which took place 13 years after the devastating U.S. terrorist attacks, writing, "Up early headed to @BGCCharityDay reppin' @One4theBoys (charity) Don't forget to take a min to remember those who died on Nine Eleven!! (sic)."

Actor Steve Buscemi was prompted to reconnect with his old New York firehouse company and produce a documentary about firefighters after losing some of his former colleagues in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Boardwalk Empire star became a New York City Firefighter in 1980 and worked for four years before leaving to pursue acting.
However, he returned to the job for a few days to help sift through the wreckage following the double attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
He says, "I was out like 15 years almost, but I knew on the day that it happened, when the reports came in of how many people were lost and the firefighters were lost... I went to my firehouse the next morning just to see if I could get a report, because it was hard to get any information.
"I learned they had lost five (team members), one of them... I had worked with, I found out there were other guys I had worked with, so I actually ended up going down to the site for a few days with my old company in my old gear. I looked sort of out of place because I had an old turnout coat and helmet, so it's not that people recognised me there, they just thought like, 'Who's the old guy?'"
The experience also inspired him to produce a documentary titled A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY about the daily dangers firefighters face in their jobs.
He continues, "That reconnected me. I always say this, 'I hate the reason I got reconnected, but I'm so grateful that's a part of my life again.'
"(The documentary is) firefighters just telling their stories and me talking to them. Some of them I know and others I was just meeting for the first time and it just covers what they do on a day-to-day basis. Of course it deals with 9/11, but I didn't want 9/11 to shadow the whole job because they've been dealing with awful stuff pre-9/11 and I wanted to hear those stories as well."

Appeared in a segment of the independent feature "Coffee and Cigarettes" directed by Jim Jarmusch

Helmed an episode of the NBC police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street"

Cast in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" as Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson, who is based on New Jersey political boss and racketeer Enoch L. Johnson

Helmed a remake of murdered Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh's film "Interview"; co-starred as a journalist interviewing a celebrity (Sienna Miller); also utilized much of Van Gogh's crew, including his director of photography

Portrayed Chet the bellhop at the Hotel Earle in the Coens' "Barton Fink"

Made feature debut as writer-director with "Trees Lounge"; also starred

Fourth film with the Coens, "Fargo"; cast as bumbling kidnapper-for-hire

Summary

Diehard New Yorker Steve Buscemi was an independent film icon, both as a perennial favorite of respected filmmakers like the Coen Brothers, and as a writer and director in his own right. Throughout the decades of prolific work that followed his rise from the East Village arts boon of the 1980s, Buscemi stayed close to his roots in avant-garde film, but he also made a dent at the multiplex in character roles in big budget comedies and action films. Buscemi's predilection for off-kilter criminal minds, inept underachievers, and sad sack loners was only boosted by his non-traditional looks, lending his characters an air of realism. In addition to career-making roles in "Reservoir Dogs" (1992), "Fargo" (1996), "Con-Air" (1997) and "Ghost World" (2001), Buscemi gained prominence as a director following his feature debut, "Trees Lounge" (1997). From 2000-04, he was highly regarded for his work directing and acting on HBO's megahit series "The Sopranos" and, following his demise on the show, resumed his average of five film appearances a year. In 2010, he toplined the Martin Scorsese-produced HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," receiving critical kudos for his layered performance in the Prohibition-era series. With an ever-growing résumé of memorable parts and no lack of quality filmmakers knocking down his door, the quirky Buscemi became one of the most dependable character actors of his generation.

Education

Name

Valley Stream Central High School

Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute

Nassau Community College

Notes

When he was four, Buscemi ran out into the street and was hit by a Brooklyn city bus, fracturing his skull. At 18, he received a settlement of $6,000 from the city for the bus accident. Buscemi used that money to pay tuition at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Manhattan.

On working with his son in "Trees Lounge" (1996): "That was nerve-wracking. He was only about four and I was afraid he might give me a hard time because I was just his father and not the director. So I got a backup kid to come in just in case. Well, my son turned out to be a total pro and the other boy was just left standing around. I felt sorry for him.

"There was a video camcorder on the set, so at lunchtime I handed it to my wife and said, 'We're going to give the other kid a boost here.' I pretended we were doing the scene again with my wife video-taping it. I yelled 'Action' and we did the whole thing. Then, I felt better because as an actor I know what it's like to get cut out of a scene." – Buscemi to Jeanne Wolf in the Daily News, Sept. 29, 1996

About the real Trees Lounge: "A couple of years ago it was sold, and when they took the neon sign down, I bought it and stored it behind my parents' garage. For the film we found a bar in Queens, got the Trees Lounge sign and put it out front." – Buscemi quoted in People magazine, Oct. 21, 1996

"It's something that I would not have been offered a few years ago. But then I did 'Con Air' and [producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer] – with both films – he put together a really interesting cast, actors I really wanted to work with, so that's part of the appeal. And the money is also an appeal. It helps me do a lot of the other work I want to do.

"This kind of film becomes more of a job. But that's the reality of the business. It is a business. But I also feel that for these types of films a lot of money is spent and people believe in me, that I add something to these films. That's not to be taken lightly. It's not like I can show up and do my work and not care. I have to invest something of myself in it. I figure as long as I do the other stuff, I'm fine with doing commercial films that feed me." – Buscemi on his role in "Armageddon," quoted in Empire magazine, September 1998

In April 2001, while filming "Domestic Disturbance" (2001), Buscemi, screenwriter Scott Rosenberg, and co-star Vince Vaughn were involved in a bar fight in Wilmington, NC. Buscemi was stabbed but was reportedly not seriously injured.

The day after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Buscemi called on his training as a firefighter and worked as a volunteer searching for survivors in the rubble of what was the World Trade Center. That week, he worked 12 hour shifts digging through the rubble, while refusing to do interviews or have his picture taken.

"I don't think I'm that much different from any other working actor out there that's trying to make a living." – Buscemi to the Associated Press, July 12, 2007

"That was a high-energy shoot. We all loved the script, loved our characters, and loved working with Quentin Tarantino, a first-time filmmaker with all this contagious enthusiasm." – Buscemi on filming "Reservoir Dogs," quoted in Playboy, September 2011